Book Title: Wallflower in Bloom
Author: Claire Cook
Version: ebook
ISBN: 978145167787
Voice: First Person
Published: June 5th, 2012
Publisher: Touchstone
Number of ebook pages: 272
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS: Meet Deirdre Griffin a middle aged woman who has what seems the perfect life. She has a world wide following, so many followers on Twitter and Facebook she can hardly count them and a loving supportive family. Only problem? It's not her life, the followers aren't hers and her family has a hard time remembering who she is. All the glory belongs to her guru brother Tag. Tag is the wonder boy, voice of hope and a brighter future for the masses. Deirdre manages Tag's Twitter account, Facebook page, ticket booking, hotel reservations, and anything else that he needs. Basically she is his personal slave on call 24/7.
When Deirdre meets Steve Morretti in Austin she is in a rather compromising position, standing in old underwear in a hotel room. So naturally she gets annoyed and angry to cover her embarrassment. When it turns out that Steve is an old friend of Tag's, Deirdre is forced to spend more time with him and things take a turn for the interesting. One thing leads to another and Steve and Deirdre find themselves alone and kissing. When Tag catches them he goes a little crazy and starts going off on Steve for trying to get closer to him through Deirdre. Losing it Deirdre quits Tag for good and runs away, runs all the way back home to her little sheep shed. She crawls into bed and proceeds to get very, very drunk. In her inebriated state Deirdre uses her brother's influence to get voted in as a last minute replacement on "Dancing With the Stars."
Waking up to a relentless pounding Deirdre finds out just how powerful Tag really is because she finds out that all of his followers have indeed voted her on. Her sister Joanie comes waltzing in explaining to her what happened and promising that when she decides to take the challenge on Joanie will be able to step in and help Tag. Even though Deirdre is frightened and offended that Joanie is only encouraging her to get her job Deirdre says "what the hell? I'm gonna grab adventure and go for it." And so her life finally begins in a dance studio in LA where she begins to take her very first step-step-stepstepsteps all on her own.
REVIEW: I hate to admit this but I had never heard of Claire Cook until we found each other on Twitter. She asked me to like her Facebook page and when I saw she was an author I of course went in search of her books. I had seen "Must Love Dogs" the movie but I never realized it was based on a book, already knowing I liked the story I figured I would try that first. But for some reason that is one of the most difficult books to find so I went in search of her other titles. Wallflower in Bloom wasn't due out for awhile yet so I tried Best Staged Plans. I thought it was good but wasn't all that excited by it but I wanted to try again. When Wallflower in Bloom finally came out I went into it slightly nervously. I wasn't sure what to expect, whether or not her writing would speak to a younger generation or not. Well I ended up really liking it!
It was a smart, fun, truly feel good story that I really got into. Deirdre is a character that you as a reader can really get behind. I found myself rooting for her again and again. The rest of the characters are great as well, they each have these little totally human qualities that make them jump off the page. Tag is the perfect amount of needy and annoying, her parents are perfectly clueless and her sister Joanie is everything an annoying little sister should be. I found myself getting a kick out of all of them.
Claire Cook may not have started writing until later in life but I think she found her calling. The writing was free and funny, witty and very modern. She didn't try too hard or become lazy with any of it, it all seemed as if everything just flowed naturally. I recently read a book where the use of the Facebook name was forced and awkward but Claire Cook's usage of both Facebook and Twitter seemed easy and perfectly in sync with the story. All in all this was very well written.
My one little complaint was that no one ever stood up for Deirdre. No one ever seemed to be on her side which I didn't like, I wanted someone to refuse to laugh at the jokes Tag made or to tell him off for making a jab at her. I did like that the DWTS team seemed to really like her and made her feel good about herself. I felt that she should have been more secure in her decision to be a contestant, that things should have started getting better once she got to LA. But those are small little personal things that I had complaints about. The book was really good and it is something I definitely recommend. If you are looking for a feel good story about a regular woman finding happiness on a ballroom floor this is a book to go in search of. It's a fun, sweet, funny, quick read that is sure to put a smile or two on your face.
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Book Title: The Age of Miracles
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Version: Advanced Readers Copy (ARC)
Voice: First Person
Release Date: June 26, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Fiction (almost dystopian)
[EDIT: Due to a dear friend I discovered that I had accidentally used the incorrec middle name of the author. My only excuse is that it was late I just wasn't paying enough attention. I have fixed it now but I still wish to apologize to my readers and Ms. Walker if she ever sees it for the 11 hour faux pas. Thank you all for reading and understanding that mistakes do indeed happen.]
SYNOPSIS: It is California 2012 and sixth grader Julia believes that this is the year that everything is going to get really good. She has her best friend Hanna and a secret crush and all seems right in the world. That is until they wake up one Saturday morning and find that the earth's rotation has slowed and everyone is unsure as to what that all might mean. All Julia and her family know is that right now things are scary and uncertain. Her mom, a former actress, flies into panic survivalist mode and begins collecting batteries, canned food, bottles and bottles of water, and all the jars of peanut butter she can find. Julia's father Joel, a doctor, continues on in his stoic way.
Julia knows that even though things are in a weird place at the moment she will still have her friends, and most importantly Hanna. When Hanna, her family is Mormon, tells Julia that they are moving to Utah to await The End Julia's world begins to fall apart. In very short order the days begin to lengthen, time starts to mean little and Julia finds herself beginning to struggle. Though there are days that are dark, with the sun only starting to rise at 9 or 10 at night, people have been trying to live according to the sun cycle. However the government has decided that everyone should go back on 'clock time' and start trying to live life as normally as possible, even if it means school starts in the dark.
Without Hanna Julia is lost in a sea of people that seem to be moving in a world separate from hers. Meanwhile the earth continues to slow and the changes begin to become more and more drastic. The ocean tides get to be so unpredictable that all beaches have been evacuated, the gravity begins to shift so that balls thrown into the air fall faster and eventually all the birds in the world begin to fall to earth never to rise again. Through it all Julia tries to keep her head down and her hopes high that maybe this terrible thing isn't all that terrible.
REVIEW: I really, really liked this book. I was even a little bit blown away by it. The funny thing is I never would have found out about this book if it wasn't for a friend at work. She came up to me one day and told me that I absolutely had to read this new ARC called "The Age of Miracles" by Karen Thompson Walker. She said that she thought I would really like it and you know she was spot on. I enjoyed just about every part of this book. It was one of those books that you just find yourself enjoying fully.
The writing was beautifully done. It had an innocence to it that was refreshing to read, and it was simplistic in many ways. Ms. Walker didn't become overly poetic or dramatic with the way the story was told, she just told it the way she saw it. There were times, however, that I found myself wishing she maybe treated things more maturely or used a more grown-up voice but I still found myself unable to stop reading. I finished it in a very short amount of time because her writing was just that good.
The story was a new twist on an old tale, the end of the world as we know it. I liked that it wasn't aliens coming to take over our world or a virus that was wiping everyone out. It was something that might possibly happen if we continue treating our world the way we have been treating it. And though Karen Thompson Walker focused on a town in California she made sure to mention that everything that was happening there, was happening everywhere around the world. Proving that as different as all people are none of us can survive for long when our planet stats to fail.
Though the ending of the world was of course a large part of the story it wasn't the central point. It was instead a story of growing up and trying to figure things out in a world that has quite literally gone a bit crazy. And Ms. Walker blended the two seamlessly. This is a great read, and a wonderful book. I really recommend "The Age of Miracles" to anyone who is looking for something that is a little different and maybe even a little sad. This is a book to look into if you enjoy a good story and incredible writing. On June 26th, go to your nearest bookstore and buy yourself a copy of "The Age of Miracles," it is well worth the wait and the money.
This won't be a book review, it will however be almost as good. I want to talk about the Blogger and Book Expo that I attended Monday and Tuesday respectively. First I have to admit here and now that I didn't even know until this year that there was such a thing as a Book Epxo. You can imagine my delight when I was told that there was indeed one and that it was being held at the Javits Center in downtown Manhattan this year. I was so excited at the thought that I might possibly get to go to this amazing thing that I immediately jumped on the computer to see when it was, and how I could get in. As soon as I opened the page for BEA 2012 I saw that Monday June 5th there was going to be a blogger expo where people in the industry would talk about what it means to be a blogger in today's world and what book bloggers could do to stay in the game. To top in all off one of my favorite authors was going to give the keynote speech, Jennifer Weiner, I actually cheered out loud...in my head anyway.
I called my dad right away and said to him "I want to go to this, how do I get in?" He came up with a brilliant idea, why don't we ask our friend that happens to be in the publishing world to get me a badge. AH HA! Only problem? It wouldn't get me access to the blogger expo on Monday. WAAAHH! "But dad I wanna gooo!" A second brilliant idea came to us, try hitting the register button on the sight and pay the $130 to get access to the whole thing. Oh duh! That is what I did and I was assured of my place. Meanwhile the badge that our publisher friend was getting me also came through, what to do? Well again a brilliant thought occurred to me, my fellow blogger, author and good friend Sydney McEntyre was dying to go to the expo and so we changed the badge to be in her name. Awesome!
I was so excited about the blogger expo! I couldn't wait to be around my fellow bloggers, talking to them about the blogging world and of course checking out the competition! With that excitement fueling me I got up bright and early Monday morning, even though I had worked the closing shift the night before, put on my tiny hat, grabbed my brand new business cards and headed out. I got there, signed in and got my badges and headed to the opening breakfast. I sat at a table not really sure how it all worked and waited to see what awaited me. I met some fellow book bloggers and we all handed out our cards and then the fun began. Each table was arranged so that through out the hour three or four authors would sit at the tables and talk to the bloggers seated there for 15 minute intervals. We got three authors that unfortunately I haven't read but I now have their names and the titles of their books and am planning on searching for them when I get back. It was fun though just to be near them and hear what they had to say about the writing process.
Then it was time for the keynote speech and I could hardly contain my excitement knowing that the incomparable Jennifer Weiner was actually in the room with me. Her speech was fantastic! She was funny and full of wit and intelligence. She made excellent points on blogging and writing and readers. Her thoughts on all topics social media were spot on and made me happy to know that she really does enjoy hearing from and talking to her fans. It warmed my heart a bit. Also good to know that she thinks that we, bloggers of all sorts, are really and truly a part of the whole book process now. I had no idea that the book blogging community was so big until I saw the room with a large number of them in it and I didn't know how important we were to authors and books until I heard Jennifer Weiner talking about it. It gave me a sense of purpose. I felt that I was actually doing something worthwhile and that if I can get my readership up I might even be able to have an influence on what books people become excited about. On top of her many words of wisdom she was also kind enough to sign a copy of her book "Then Came You" reviewed recently right here, http://girlinthetinyhat.blogspot.com/2012/05/then-came-you-jennifer-weiner.html. And because she is just all around awesome, she took a picture with me, even though she was beyond exhausted.
After Ms. Weiner finished it was time for a panel of bloggers and people in the book world to discuss what it means to be a blogger in the world today and how to become successful. They had a woman who worked at Harper Perennial, a man that had helped start goodreads.com, a woman who was a blogger turned author and a woman who was a freelance editor and blogger. I was only able to stay for part of their discussion because I had to be at work but what I heard was great. They talked about exactly how important bloggers are becoming. Because in today's world where reading is becoming less of a hobby for people and more of a chore what to read next has become all about word of mouth. The more hype around a book, the more people ending up wanting to buy it. Bloggers have become the door to door book sales-people of our time, in a time when people spend most of their time on the Internet bloggers are becoming the go-to people for what books to read. The most used example of this was the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy by E.L. James, a few months ago no one had even heard of it and now? It's so popular every third woman that walks in the Barnes & Noble I work at is looking for that book and everyone is reading it. At the very least everyone has heard of it. This is all because one blogger picked it up and liked it, wrote about it and the rest is history.
The next big question was "is it possible for book bloggers to make a living doing what they do?" Another important question that I felt was answered well. The ultimate answer is yes they can. However it's more difficult then just can I make money or not. Ethically no publisher can take a book blogger, who does book reviews, and pay them. The blogger would then be bound to do nothing but good reviews on said publisher's authors. This of course would defeat the whole idea behind being a blogger, our freedom of speech is virtually unchallenged. However, as one of the panelists proved, bloggers can go on to become authors themselves and make their fortunes from doing what they love, writing. They could start making commissions through affiliate programs that they post links to on their sites. I don't know if there is yet a way for book bloggers to make enough money to live solely off their blogs but maybe it's a thing yet to be discovered.
After that I pretty much had to leave so I snuck out the back and headed to work. I worked from 1-8:30pm, and then headed home and went right to sleep. Tuesday morning I woke up real early like again and headed to the first official day of the book expo itself. I was so excited! My fellow blogger, author and good friend, Sydney McEntyre, came and met me and we began our day. We were in overload before we even began. It was so exciting to just be there that we were giddy. The very first thing we got was a bright orange bag from CSPAN 2, booktv, and then we headed in to get the good stuff. Free bookage! We started near the booths dedicated to YA and children's literature. And we just made our way up and down aisles until we hit the opposite wall. We were there for hours and after getting and filling four more bags each we became those people that you see sitting on the floor against a wall. We met an up and coming British author and got advanced reader (from here on out these shall be referred to ARs) copies of his book, which he signed. Happiness! We proceeded to get more and more books until both of us just couldn't take it anymore.
While we were getting all this swag I was able to hand out my card to quite a few publishers, including Scholastic and Simon & Schuster, so excited about all of the contacts I made! It was so worth the back ache of carrying all those ARs and being on my feet all day. I am excited to start reading what I got and reviewing them. All the publishers I met with were friendly and receptive and a couple even said that they would start sending me review copies of their books. YAY! More free books! So very excited about that. I can assure you that reviews are going to start coming out of my ears. I hope that everyone continues to read and share them with their friends.
It's hard to fully explain just how cool being at the book expo was for me. As well as just how cool it was being at the blogger expo. All of it was 100% worth the early mornings, being on my feet for 14 hours and carrying bags full of so many books that I could bench press them. Being in a room full of people that not only work in the industry and authors but also being squished in with all of these people that love to read almost as much as I do was kind of like a high. I was giddy most of the day! It was literally two of the funnest days I have spent in New York since moving. Well actually two of the funnest days I have had period. I feel as if this was a big turning point for me and I would like to thank everyone that supported me and helped me get there. I really couldn't have done it without any of you! And be prepared, there are lots more reviews coming your way, this I promise you.
ISBN: 978145167787
